AltWeeklies Wire
Rehashed Yet Illuminatingnew
Via sheer wizardry, Ruin feels like a rebirth, with Joey Burns's recycling of the archetypal taking on the dimension of myth.
Tags: Calexico, Garden Ruin
His Own Pathnew
Kotche's offering sounds nothing like Wilco, but people committed to the increasingly quirky group shouldn't be afraid of going Mobile.
Tags: Glenn Kotche, Mobile
Still Juvenilenew
With the exception of "Get Ya Hustle On," a track about Hurricane Katrina, most of this CD is entertainingly bouncy but lyrically predictable.
Tags: Reality Check, juvenile
Fragile, Elastic Masterpiecenew
Destroyer actually does destroy indie-rock wussitude, by channeling it into the sonic equivalent of a passive-aggressive apocalypse.
Tags: Destroyer, Destroyer's Rubies
Yule's Tidenew
A critic searches the season's discs for gems and finds that Elton John has better taste in Christmas pals than Martha Stewart.
Westword's Favorite National CDs for 2004new
After sifting through more crap than a Roto-Rooter guy, Westword's music staff submits these suck-free national releases as reason not to stick a shank in your speakers.
Season's Bleatingsnew
Plenty of celebrities are looking to pad their bank accounts via Christmas recordings, and few appear to have broken a sweat while making them.
